Taking the point after David Gravel's engine failure Donny Schatz then held off a late charge from Kyle Larson to win his tenth 5-Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals championship Saturday night in front of large and boisterous crowd at the Knoxville Raceway.
Gravel and Schatz would start the fifty-lap headliner from the front row and the cheers could be heard above the roar of the 410 cubic inch engines as Gravel took the lead at the drop of the green and then pulled away from Schatz and the rest of the twenty-four car field. Running a blistering pace Gravel would start to work lapped traffic on lap six and that would allow Schatz and the third place car of Kerry Madsen to close the gap. The crowd roared as Madsen made a run at Schatz for second but the driver that has won this event in nine of the past eleven seasons squelched the bid and continued his pursuit of the leader.
Not a sound could be heard when Schatz charged under Gravel in turn three for the lead on lap sixteen, but they quickly came back to life when Gravel crossed over Schatz's slider and regained the lead down the front stretch.
The first caution of the race waved when Austin McCarl appeared to lose an engine on lap nineteen and once back to green Gravel continued to set a fast pace. It all came to an end though for the driver who scored a perfect night on Thursday when he slowed suddenly in turn four with his own motor issues giving up the lead and retiring for the night on lap twenty-two.
Schatz would assume the lead as the race went back to green, but only for two more laps before Terry McCarl slapped the guardrail in turn four causing one of the sponsor banners to fall to the track surface. Just one lap shy of the mid-race mark it was decided that the halfway pit stop would be held at that time and the majority of the fans were hopeful that somebody would be able to take the lead from Schatz following the break. Kerry Madsen would be hungry in the second spot while NASCAR star Kyle Larson had moved up from ninth to third. Some even held out hope that defending champion Jason Johnson might be able to pull off another miracle as he had raced his way to the sixth position after starting seventeenth, being one of the few drivers moving forward while using the low line around the historic half-mile oval.
On the restart Madsen made his bid with a big slider on Schatz entering turn one. Madsen would say later that he thought that he had him cleared, but then here came the green #15 with all four wheels above the cushion right back around him on the outside to maintain the lead. The big move would cost Madsen the second spot as well when Larson went driving by and the next several laps would be a high speed chase around the top side until Greg Hodnett slowed on lap thirty-eight to bring out the caution.
This excited the ABS ("Anybody But Schatz") contingent, however it was likely a benefit to Schatz who would now have a clear race track on the restart rather than having to negotiate traffic over the final twelve laps.
Larson took a look at Schatz in turn one on the restart only to have Donny pull away down the back stretch and as the laps clicked away Larson would stay within about ten car lengths. Lapped traffic running in both grooves would present a challenge for Schatz over the final three laps and when it looked like Larson might have a run on him the crowd came to their feet. Schatz handled the traffic like a master though and when the white flag waved he had them cleared while Larson had one more car to get around coming off of turn two.
With a nice run down the back stretch Larson gave it everything he had driving to the bottom in turn three, but as he slid up the race track Schatz drove around the challenging cushion one last time to pull away down the front straightaway and secure his tenth Nationals title. The win drew the usual chorus of boos from those who are getting tired of seeing him win, while many also applauded as he added to his list of amazing accomplishments here at Knoxville. Larson added to his legend, despite his young age, with his runner-up finish as Kerry Madsen finished third. Shane Stewart and Brad Sweet were fourth and fifth while Brian Brown finished sixth. Aaron Reutzel came from the nineteenth starting spot to finish seventh, eighth went to Rico Abreu, Daryn Pittman was ninth and the 2017 track champion here at Knoxville Ian Madsen completed the top ten.
Saturday Notes......The early preliminaries did not offer up much for story lines as the track slowly widened out for better racing. Rager Phillips won the E-Main, but then had his motor go up in smoke early in the D......Jamie Veal took the lead from Lee Jacobs on lap nine to win the D-Main, a big difference from last year when Veal started the Championship race from the second row and finished in sixth.....James McFadden, Brady Bacon, Bill Balog and Jac Haudenschild were the stout group of four that transferred out of the C-Main as "The Wild Child" held off current ASCS National Series point leader Sam Hafertepe Jr. in the closing laps......As it usually is the 22-lap B-Main, where four more drivers make the big show, was very entertaining especially in the closing laps. Young Trey Starks paced the field for the most of the race with former Nationals champion Tim Shaffer making the move up from an eighth-place start into the top four. Shaffer had just made the pass to take over second on lap nine when Balog slowed to bring out the caution sending Shaffer back to fourth for the restart. Once back to green only two more laps would be scored before Spencer Bayston tagged the guardrail in turn two ending his night. Before the incident Bayston had actually been racing with Dominic Scelzi for position, and for the Rookie of the Nationals title, so with Bayston's misfortune that title and bonus money would go to Scelzi. Also, an interesting question was raised tonight on Twitter wondering if, after his Wednesday night issue with the scales, was Bayston the first driver ever to race on all four nights of the Nationals?......Once back to green Lucas Wolfe replaced Justin Henderson in the top four before the caution waved again on lap sixteen, this time for a flat tire on the #19 of Brent Marks, erasing a pass by Jason Sides on Starks for the lead......On the restart both Sides and Shaffer would get around Starks and when Trey tried to battle back he slid up the track and dropped back to the fourth position. With two laps remaining Brooke Tatnell saw an opening under Starks for the necessary fourth spot and when he had to put his left front up on the berm in turn four to make the pass he clipped the starting line cone and tossed it onto the race track. The caution waved after the lap was scored, so the early leader Starks would now start fifth with just two laps left to get back into the top four. That task likely seemed impossible when Chad Kemenah passed him going down the back stretch, but when Tatnell muscled his way under Wolfe in turns three and four Starks went to the top and sailed around both Kemenah and Wolfe to claim the fourth and final transfer position behind Sides, Shaffer and Tatnell......The best A-Main finish from those four came from Tatnell who moved to 14th.......What looked so promising for Jason Johnson in the first half of the main went the other direction after halftime as he dropped back to eleventh at the finish, still an improvement of six positions from his original starting spot.....In the post-race press conference Schatz was very complimentary of Larson and said that he wished that he could run more Sprint Car events each year even though in most of the ones that he had seen him at this year, Kyle had beat him. "But not tonight! Hopefully he can go win a race in Michigan tomorrow"......Larson smiled and stated that this was in fact his fifteenth and last Sprint Car race of 2017 and that he had won nine of them and finished second three times. He thanked Chip Ganassi for letting him come back to compete tonight, something that was not in the original plans, and hoped that this extra exposure might allow his Cup team to secure a new sponsor for 2018......I would say that if you asked the 25,000 plus in attendance tonight who they wanted to win this year's NASCAR Monster Energy Cup championship, 99.9% of them would have given you the same answer. Go get 'em Kyle!.......Cup drivers with either open wheel experience or direct ties Ryan Newman, Ryan Blaney and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. enjoyed listening to the drivers during the press conference while team owners Tony Stewart and Kasey Kahne were also on the grounds.
Another Nationals is in the books and once again this was an event that is so much more than racing. It is a reunion of friends and racing family and I must again thank the Nachbors, Keith, Jeff, Sean, Sam, Ethan and Grandpa for allowing me to invade their space and treat me like one the family at the track while Barry, Stephanie and Aidan Johnson do the same allowing me to set up home base with them in Pella each year. It was also a special week for me to have my son Morgan back where he should be this week after missing the past two years while he was working down south.
Kendra Jacobs and the entire Spire Sports Marketing Team do an excellent job with all of the "extras" that make this more than a race while John McCoy and his officials take care of the on track action. Can't wait to do it all again in 2018!
For those of you who still want to get your Sprint Car fix next weekend remember that the Shottenkirk.com Sprint Invaders will be in action Friday night at the Lee County Speedway in Donnellson and Saturday night at 34 Raceway west of Burlington. Hope to see you there!
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